The Laboratories don’t want you to find these tapes. Between relentless monster AI, one-way steel doors, and a save system designed to punish curiosity, hunting down Chapter 5’s hidden lore is genuinely punishing — unless you already know where to go.
Chapter 5 hides exactly three VHS tapes across its gore-stained halls, and the developers buried each one behind puzzles, platforming, and equipment checks that assume you’ve been paying attention. More importantly, the game’s checkpoint system is ruthless. Cross the wrong invisible trigger and a blast door slams shut behind you permanently. Miss a tape in that window and you’re reloading a previous save and trudging back through an entire stealth sequence. That’s not a warning worth ignoring. This guide covers every tape location, every puzzle solution, and exactly what gear you need before you start looking.
The Gear You Need Before You Start Hunting
These tapes aren’t scattered on the floor waiting to be grabbed. Each one sits behind a specific mechanic or tool, and going in unprepared means wasted time at best, a missed collectible at worst. Similar to how completionist runs in games like Nioh 3 require careful preparation before locking yourself out of trophies, knowing what you need ahead of time saves enormous frustration.
| Gear | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| The Grabpack | Core traversal tool. Lets you swing across wide gaps and reach elevated playground structures where tapes are tucked away. |
| UV Blacklight | Reveals invisible ink codes scrawled on walls and floors. Without it, the third tape is completely inaccessible. |
| Pressure Hand | Breaks cracked glass panels and brittle vents. You’ll need it to force your way into a locked surgical suite late in the chapter. |
Don’t go tape hunting until you’ve confirmed all three are in your loadout.
Tape Locations and How to Reach Them
Finding the tape is only part of the job. Each cassette needs a matching VCR to actually play, and the game rarely keeps them in the same room. Here’s every location broken down.
Tape 1: Experiment 1170
This cyan cassette documents Huggy Wuggy’s time as a test subject, and it’s one of the bleaker pieces of lore in the chapter. Head into the Testing area and navigate to the Conditioning wing. You’ll come across a security door controlled by an emotion-based keypad — a panel displaying cartoon faces labeled Happy, Disgust, Sad, and Fear.
The solution is embedded in the third Huggy Wuggy memory sequence. If you blew past it while sprinting for your life, the default order is: Happy → Happy → Disgust → Sad → Fear → Happy. Fair warning: the game reportedly randomizes this sequence for some players. If that combination doesn’t work, go back and listen carefully to the audio cues in the memory segment to find your specific version.
Once the door opens, walk into the corridor beyond and look straight down. The cyan tape is sitting on the floor, no fanfare attached. Carry it to the ruined room at the end of the hall — you’ll spot a cyan VCR on the left side. Watch the footage and try not to feel bad about what happened to Experiment 1170.
Tape 2: Three P’s of Diorama Safety
The title sounds like something a bored HR manager made up on a Tuesday. The content is considerably darker in context. This yellow tape lives in the Sweet Street section, reachable after you survive the initial Huggy Wuggy confrontation. You’ll emerge near an abandoned ice cream truck ride and a gated playground. Don’t follow the main path — take a deliberate left into the play structure instead.
Push toward the back of the playground and locate a climbing ramp positioned across from a large yellow slide. Head up the ramp and the yellow cassette is sitting right there near the top edge.
The matching VCR requires a bit more effort. Keep climbing through the structure until you can jump the gap onto a wooden platform built into an oversized fake tree. This Toy Treehouse holds a yellow television set. Insert the tape and enjoy a Playtime Co safety presentation that no one inside this facility ever took seriously.
Tape 3: How to Maintain Your Human
This is the one. The most unsettling piece of recorded media in Chapter 5, and the hardest tape to actually retrieve. The red cassette is stashed inside the Reanimation sector. As you move toward the Grand Stitchery, you’ll pass a corridor lined with medical observation rooms. Look for a door explicitly marked Surgery 2.
It’s locked, but the Pressure Hand solves that problem. Smash the cracked glass panels around the room’s perimeter to breach the security. You’re in, but there’s no power. Switch to your Conductive Hand, pull a charge from the nearby power source, and feed it to the conductor inside Surgery 2. That kills the lock entirely.
Inside you’ll find a sealed metal cabinet holding the red tape — label partially scratched away, reading “How to Maintain Your Illegible.” This is where the UV Blacklight becomes essential. Activate it and scan the floor and surrounding surfaces near the lab equipment. A three-digit code will glow into view. The combination during my run was 728, though this may vary. Punch it in, grab the tape.
Carry it directly across the hallway into Surgery Suite 1. The red VCR is at the back of the room. Insert the cassette and the screen renders the full title: “How to Maintain Your Human.” It’s a deeply uncomfortable watch that contextualizes everything you’re about to face in the facility’s lower depths.
Don’t Miss These Before the Door Slams
All three tapes are missable. The auto-save system will happily seal off earlier areas without warning, so treat each tape as a priority the moment you enter its zone rather than circling back later. If collectible hunting across unforgiving games is your thing, the same methodical approach applies whether you’re tracking down all crow relic locations in Crisol: Theater of Idols or surviving Chapter 5’s Laboratories — patience and a checklist beat brute force every time.