Welcome To Elderfield Old Woods — Full Guide

Reach the Old Woods campsite, speak with Michelle, and follow The Local Jogger’s Club task through Barry. The community Tasks record gives that quest as the route to the secret paths east of the Old Woods Bus Stop and west of the Mill. It is a better starting point than wandering repeatedly after cutting a large tree.

Find the Mill Key in the shifting woods, enter the Mill, and complete the fight that awards the Lost Mirror. Return the Mirror to Barry, then speak with Michelle to learn the first secret route. For the second route, the same task record sends you for Verdite Ore east of the Bus Stop and back to Michelle.

The visible journal in your save should decide which stage to do next. A community task table can describe the route, but an old save may already have the key, the Mirror, or one secret path. Check those flags before revisiting a random forest room or fighting an encounter again.

The checked September 2026 location guide points through the northern Town Outskirts past Tanner’s Cabin toward the Old Woods. Use the campsite as your first stable destination, then look for Michelle and the conversation that points to the Jogger’s Club. If that dialogue has already happened, open the journal for the task’s current step.

Barry is the next contact named in the community Tasks table. Speak with him at the Jogger’s Club before searching for quest items, because the objective gives the Mill Key and Lost Mirror a clear purpose. Do not use a named item from another quest as a substitute simply because it also comes from the forest.

The Mill Key is part of The Local Jogger’s Club sequence. A September 20 player discussion reports finding it on a giant-statue map in the Old Woods after several in-game days, while the community task table records the key as the next required item. Use the statue room as a search landmark, not a fixed claim that the same directional sequence always appears.

The forest layout can be confusing, so note the room you actually reach and whether the key is visible there. If the statue map does not appear on the first visit, that player report suggests waiting and revisiting may be more useful than following a rigid left-right recipe. The current game prompt and your journal still outrank an unverified map seed.

When you obtain the key, check its name in inventory before leaving the area. The Mill Key is a task item for a specific door, not a Basic Skeleton Key or a generic gate item. If the Mill entrance does not respond, verify that the correct task stage is active and that the key has not been stored elsewhere.

Use the Mill Key at the Mill and prepare for a fight inside. The community Tasks page links the Mill encounter to obtaining the Lost Mirror, so the important result is that item appearing after the encounter. Bring enough food and equipment for a turn-based fight rather than treating the key pickup as the end of the task.

Return the Lost Mirror to Barry at the Jogger’s Club and wait for the task response. The same task table then sends you back to Michelle for the first secret route. Speaking to Michelle only before returning the Mirror may leave the route closed even though you have already explored the Mill.

Check the journal and the passage after that conversation. If the Mirror is missing, recheck the Mill encounter result and inventory or storage before assuming the quest text is wrong. Record the exact stage and item name if Barry does not acknowledge the return.

After the first route, the community Tasks record asks for Verdite Ore east of the Old Woods Bus Stop. Collect the named ore and bring it back to Michelle for the second route lesson. This stage is separate from obtaining the Mill Key, so finishing the Mill does not necessarily open both paths at once.

Use the Bus Stop as the landmark for the ore search rather than assuming that every Verdite source satisfies the task. Read the current journal wording and check whether the ore is in your inventory when you speak with Michelle. If the passage stays closed, determine whether you completed the Mirror return and the ore handoff in order.

Tree Branch Cleanup is another Old Woods task recorded on the same community page. It starts with Adrian’s complaint, then points through the campsite and Jogger’s Club route toward the Ancient Tree deeper in the woods. The task table names a later Catacombs key as a reward, but this is a community record rather than a verified current-save guarantee.

Cutting or fighting near a large tree does not by itself prove that The Local Jogger’s Club has reached its Mirror and Verdite stages. Check which task is active when the forest appears to stop opening. Separate the secret-route task from the tree cleanup task before looking for a missing item.

Start with the task chain rather than another direction: Michelle, Barry, Mill Key, Mill encounter, Lost Mirror, Barry again, then Michelle. The September 2026 player report about the statue room shows why a single fixed map route can fail in a shifting forest. A missed conversation or item handoff is often easier to test than an assumed hidden exit.

The old Steam discussion also mentions a lost soul and lost pendant while asking about forest progress. Those names are not shown as required steps in the checked Jogger’s Club solution, so do not make them universal prerequisites here. Save their exact task names for separate research if your journal asks for them.

The task order, Mirror handoff, Verdite stage, and secret-route destinations come from the community Tasks page read September 24, 2026. A September 20 player report independently describes the giant-statue Mill Key search, and a launch-era location guide repeats the campsite and Jogger’s Club progression. These sources support a usable route but do not verify every room seed, enemy count, or reward in all current saves.

To be confirmed: the exact Mill Key room generation rule, whether the same forest directions work across saves, and any patch-specific change to the Tree Branch Cleanup reward. Capture the journal stage, key or Mirror pickup, and Michelle’s route dialogue if your result differs. Those observations identify the failing step without promoting an old discussion into a universal map.