Welcome to The Depths, the first part of the Secrets of the Maw DLC for Little Nightmares. Instead of continuing your adventure with Six, we’re switching protagonists and joining the Kid on his own escape attempt.
To select The Depths, enter Chapter Select and scroll back to the first Chapter, then scroll down to access the first DLC episode.
In this guide, we’ll give step-by-step instructions for every puzzle and encounter, explaining how to progress, and how to unlock every achievement / trophy with collectibles and hidden challenges.
Early in the original Little Nightmares, Six encountered a strange figure beneath the water in the lower levels of the Maw. Now the Kid gets to meet her and get a full glimpse of her terrifying features. She’s only seen in the background, or in quick glimpses. If you’re willing to brave the frightening concept art gallery, you can get an up-close look at the Grandma.
Secrets of the Maw Ch. 1: The Depths
At the start of the chapter, simply swim until hands reach up from below the dark water and snatch the kid up, dragging him below, and waking him up from his nightmare. This area should be familiar for anyone that’s played through Little Nightmares. The nursery is filled with sleeping kids, but the massive door to the left unlocked. Push it open.
Down below, the Caretaker is chasing another escaped kid. Ignore them and continue left. Drop through the hole in the cell floor to land on a mattress, but beware the black gunk below. A leech will attack the kid if you don’t move quick and exit right.
Use the stacked metal cages to climb down to the first floor where the evil eye security system is located. Stay out of the light – when the eye looks left, rush toward the background and hide underneath it. Move left, and when the coast is clear, sprint to down the hallway and squeeze through the bars.
Inside the dark playground, move to the left and squeeze through another set of bars to enter the restroom. In the washroom, you’ll catch a glimpse of the escaping kid. Grab the small metal cage and drag it toward the taller cages on the left to climb up. Just hold [R2 / RT] to cling to the cage and climb up.
- Flotsam #1: The first (of five) flotsam collectibles in The Depths is located on the white sink, in the room where you’ll need to drag the metal crate to climb up to the window and use the escaped kid’s sheet rope to escape. Drag the metal cage to the sink first to climb up and pull the top off the bottle.
Slip through the bars in the top-left corner of the washroom and climb down the sheet rope to follow the kid with the flashlight. Use the wooden boxes to climb up and through the round hole in the wall, leading into a room with an open drain.
Drop into the drain, and swim left to reach solid, submerged ground. Grab hold of the brown luggage using the handle and drag it toward the high ledge of the sunken area to climb up and out of there. Slip through the wooden barricade to find an abandoned flashlight. Pick it up, you’re going to need it for later. Press [Circle / B] to use it.
Turn on the flashlight and locate the narrow wooden passage to the right. When you squeeze through, you’ll find a killer leech waiting for you. Rush toward the foreground and then right. Hop the wooden barrier, and you’ll enter a flooded pipe area – beware, leeches move much faster in the water. You’ll have to start sprinting to escape.
Leeches will appear all over as you rush down this passage. Slide under the first pipe, then jump / climb over the second pipe. At the end of the path, there’s a cage lattice the kid can climb up, but there’s a leech still attached. Use the wide open area to sprint around, leading the leeches in a circle until the leech on the cage drops down. When it does, you’re free to use the cage and climb up to safety.
Ahead, you’ll reach a completely flooded area. Ignore the roaring and growling and rumbling, and swim into the deep water. There’s a climbable cage on the far right side. Get through, and continue moving right. In the wide open waters, in the chamber with the washing machine filled with trash, head straight right. An underwater thing will begin moving toward the kid. Don’t let it catch up to you.
When you escape, you’ll enter a large area with strange pipes in the background. Drop down, and you’ll encounter a pipe that’s blocked up with black leeches. Pick up one of the objects on the ground and toss it into the leeches to dislodge them, then run around in a circle to escape, avoid, and re-enter the unblocked pipe. Avoid the water if you can, the leeches move faster in water.
Crawl through the pipes, and you’ll drop into another flooded zone. Climb the lattice in the background all the way to the top to encounter a puzzle.
The Water Lever Puzzle
Up the tall metal lattice, you’ll reach a pressure gauge with a red handle. It doesn’t work, so climb the metal pipe to the left, and jump to grab hold of the switch. Your weight will pull it down, reactivating the pressure gauge near the deep pit.
To solve the puzzle, pull the red lever until it’s at about the 75% mark. At 100%, the water level is too high – at 50%, the water level is too low. 75% is just right. When the water levels out, you can drop in and swim through the open passage to the right.
- Flotsam #2: The second flotsam can be collected from the first real puzzle of the DLC. At the water pressure switch that allows you to set the water level by increments, raise the lever to 100%, then push it to about 25%. Dive into the water, and ride it – there’s a secondary passage into the trash-filled room you can reach beneath the main door. Slip inside and you’ll find the bottle prominently displayed in the back of the chamber.
When the water is at the right height, you’ll be able to swim to the ladder through the opening and climb up. At the wooden barricade, use the metal grate you can push open in the dark corner behind the barrier.
Ahead, things get dangerous. In the deep water, Grandma is hunting you. If you stand on light, floating objects like boxes, she’ll smack them, attempting to knock you off and into the water. Keep swimming left, and stop at each object – swim to the box, then the sofa, then the box, and jump to the barrels. Reach the crate near the double ladders and sprint over the rickety bridge – it’ll hold – and hop to the barrel.
- Flotsam #3: During the first real sequence where you’ll encounter Grandma, you’ll spot the green bottle on a high platform just past the pair of ladders with a bridge connecting them. Swim to the floating barrels / boxes near the background to jump to this platform and collect the bottle.
Use the floating barrel to jump onto the raised platform, then use the exposed metal bars of the pipe to climb up and jump to the valve. Turn it to raise the submerged bag – don’t raise it too high! Jump to the bag, then jump to the swinging hook. Move left / right to give yourself added momentum on the hook, and leap to the raised wooden platform with the bloody chum.
Throw the bloody chum into the water (to the left) to draw Grandma away from your escape path. When you see her telltale hand appear, quickly jump and swim right to temporarily escape and reach dry land.
- Fun And Games Ahead: To unlock the only secret achievement / trophy in this chapter, reach the room filled with filthy linen after escaping your first encounter with the Grandma. After tossing bloody chum into the water and swimming away, you’ll reach a room with a metal bucket in the background. To the right, find a wrapped up ball and pick it up. Toss the ball into the metal bucket, and a swarm of rats will appear. A few seconds later, and you’ll unlock the achievement / trophy.
Climb up onto the wooden platform and push the board to create a makeshift bridge. You’ll have to jump the gap. Across, there’s a closed door with an eye symbol. Adjacent to the handle, one of the wooden boards is loose – step out onto the ledge of the board to create a ramp. It may require a few jumps to loosen the board up. Sprint up and jump to the door handle to open the path forward.
In the next room, swim to the shelves and pull the red lever to lower the water level, draining out the flooded room. Climb down the tall shelves, and push the chair to reach the table with the red pot. Push the red pot to break it and collect the key to the exit door. Just watch out for the black leech that appears after breaking the pot.
Grab the key and rush to the door. After unlocking it, you can push it closed to trap that nasty leech. Climb the ladder to reach the second puzzle of the area.
The Electrified Water Puzzle
At the top of the ladder, the Kid encounters a flooded area with a broken wire in the water, electrifying it and making it impossible to swim through. To make progress, press the button to lower the water level, and push the brown box into the water that’s near the entrance grating.
Drop into the sunken area when the water level is lowered, and push the two brown boxes to form stepping stones along the back wall. Check out the screenshot if you need a better idea where to place each box.
Climb back up and press the button to raise the water, then hop across using your floating boxes to reach the right side of the pool.
Through the showers, you’ll get your first good glimpse at Grandma. She’ll sink into the water, and wait for you to start swimming before attempting to strike. Like last time, you’ll need to stay out of the water as much as possible, and always aim for the closest floating object. Never stay on the same floating thing for long, or the Grandma will attack, knocking you back into the water.
In the green water, get on the crate, then the luggage, then the barrel to reach the raised platform. Jump off the platform, and get to the floating planks to reach the platforms on the opposite side of the metal wall. Jump onto the taller platform, then run-jump right and reach the floating barrels.
From the barrels, climb up onto the shelf and run-jump right. Climb onto the planks, hopping to the second set, then the barrels. Swim to the crate and climb another tall shelf to some raised pipes, where you can hop onto a hanging boat. Run-jump off the boat to the planks and finally onto dry land.
- Flotsam #4: After escaping the second major encounter with the Grandma, you’ll be able to climb a tall ladder of wooden boards out of the flooded section. While climbing up, you’ll reach a wooden platform. Hop onto it, and to the left there’s a balcony that looks impossible to reach. Use the tiny ledge on the background, behind the pipes, to reach this area with the fourth bottle.
Climb the tall ladder of exposed wooden planks to reach the third puzzle of this chapter.
The Missing Crank Puzzle
Dropping into a two-story room with a pool in the center below, drop into the water and you’ll see that there’s a missing crank device to the left, with the missing crank handle on the wooden platform to the right.
Near the crank device, there’s a button that raises / lowers the water level in the pool. Ignore it for now. Instead, get on the right side of the room and climb up to retrieve the crank handle. Drop it into the water below, then lower the water level with the bottom.
Place the lever on the luggage when the water level is lowered. Push the luggage (with the lever on top) toward the left edge of the pool, then raise the water level up again. The luggage will float, and you’ll be able to toss the crank handle off the luggage and toward the landing with the crank input.
Now insert the handle into the slot, but don’t start cranking yet. The crank actually opens the exit door – but only temporarily. To get through it, you’ll need to first lower the water level again, and place the luggage in the center of the pool, then raise the water. That way, after cranking the door open, you can run and jump across the pool instead of swimming through it. Swimming is too slow, and even then, you’ll probably need to slide under the closing door to make it through.
The next room is extremely dark. Flip on that flashlight, and navigate the rotting wood platforms. Push open the door at the end, and you’ll begin the final encounter with Grandma. The door falls open, and Grandma slides out of her chair and into the deep water.
Swim to the lighthouse buoy and climb up, then jump to the hanging hook. Grandma will attempt to pull the buoy down under the water, so jump off fast. Swing on the hook and keep swimming to each floating object until you see a metal lattice in the background. Climb up to find an electrical box. Flip the switch to turn the power on.
Jump to the hanging light bulb and swing across the gap, then grab hold of the red lever to raise the water level. Grandma destroys your platform, so you’ll need to use the floating objects to avoid her hands.
Next, reach the TV platform. Climb up, and immediately start pushing the TV off the platform and into the water. Push on the left side to move it right. If you’re quick, you’ll push the TV into the water before Grandma destroys the platform. Pumping amps into Grandma gets rid of her for good, and the Kid can use the floating TV set to reach the exit.
- Flotsam #5: The last collectible is located just after pushing the TV set into the water and defeating Grandma. In the room with the stairs, look on the lower-right wall and pull the two wooden boards down to find a hidden bottle. Pop it up to earn an achievement / trophy.
Escape isn’t far now. Climb the stairs and up the ladder to complete the chapter. Too bad escape isn’t so easy. Better luck next time, Kid.
Achievement / Trophy Unlocked
- So Close: You’ll do better next time.
