Silent Hill f Shrine Path walkthrough - how to find the correct Ema

What are the correct Ema on the Silent Hill f Shrine Path? On one of your many trips to the Otherworld, you're tasked with scouring walls of Ema to find a very specific combination. If finding the solution wasn't already hard enough, you're also interrupted by harrowing enemies, so you'd better have your wits about you and your inventory stocked.

To find the Shrine Vault combination, you must first solve a mysterious riddle, this is Silent Hill, after all. Guided by your childhood toy, you can find the answers you seek - or we can just tell you where to look in the horror game. We've got the solutions to the Silent Hill f Ema puzzle below, how to unlock the gates, and the best ways to defeat the monsters.

When you walk towards the Inari shrine, your childhood toy is waiting for you, an Ema by her side. On it, a riddle reads, "Lightning cast down from the heavens split asunder the decayed tree. From the earth grows kudzu, the prophet of eternal prosperity." This is your hint for all three Ema: lightning, a tree, a kudzu plant.

You can find one at each of the three locations marked on the image above. Once you find one, you can no longer interact with the Ema in that location. Turning an Ema over reveals one of the three icons needed for the gate combination. If you don't want to, you don't need to memorize the images on the back of the Ema, as they can be found in your journal.

Note that, once you find all three Ema, you can interact with the Ema wall once more to collect a valuable Silent Hill f Omimori - the Cat.

Shrine Vault combination lock

Once you find the third Ema, you're also given the part required for the combination lock on the Shrine Vault. Head back to the Shrine Vault entrance and enter the combination now marked in your journal.

Luckily, the journal makes this all easier for you, but, just in case, the image above shows the solution (in Hard mode).

Reaching the Inari statues

This part seems far more difficult than it is. As you're being chased by monsters, your sanity also decreases, so do not stop and fight. Instead, run, but be sure to dodge when the enemies get close behind you. If your sanity gets too low, pop an item like Divine Water or Kudzu Tea. You just need to get close enough to the Inari statues to trigger the next cut scene.

With the correct Ema found and the Vault Shrine opened, you can return to the normal world and continue exploring your hometown of Ebisugaoka. Several classic Silent Hill midgame bosses will stand in your way, so check out our guide to defeating the Rinko boss if you struggle, and read our Silent Hill f review for our thoughts overall.