Penitentiary Riddles

The pillar with the three dials.

This article is a guide for a Silent Hill: Homecoming puzzle.

Near the beginning of the Overlook Penitentiary's transformation into the Otherworld, Alex Shepherd must solve a puzzle through a series of riddles. In the room, a pillar appears that blocks the passage to a corridor below and in order to move it, Alex must reach into a hole after correctly answering three riddles. To answer them, a dial must be turned with the choice facing up, and should Alex make a wrong choice, he will be damaged by the hole in the pillar and be forced to fight Needlers.

Solution

Riddle 1

Knight

I stand beside the holy man
The monarchs fear my wrath
None may move the way I can
Ever the crooked path

The choices given are all chess pieces. The answer is the knight.

• He stands beside the "holy man," the bishop.
• He moves in a "crooked" L-shaped path no other piece can have.
• "The monarch fears (his) wrath" refers to the fact check mate can easily be achieved with your knights still on the board.

Riddle 2

Coffin

The man who devised it
Does not want it
The man who bought it
Does not use it
The man who used it
Does not realize it

Some choices on the dial can be identified: a skull and crossbones, a coffin, a knife, and a set of bars. The answer is the coffin.

• The man who built the coffin doesn't want it
• The man who bought the coffin won't be using it for himself
• The man in the coffin cannot realize it for he is dead

Riddle 3

Nothing

What man loves more than life
Fears more than death or mortal strife
What poor men have, the rich acquire
And all contented men desire
What misers spend and the wastrels save
And each man carries to his grave?

This riddle is arguably the more complex of the three. The choices given are: a heart ("love"), an omega symbol ("the end"), a $ symbol ("money"), an empty space ("nothing") and a clock ("time"). The answer is nothing.

• The poor man has nothing
• Contented men want nothing
• Misers (one who hoards) spend nothing

Notes

• The outcome of reaching into the hole without the correct answers is similar to the scene in the hospital where Alex reaches in a hole to retrieve Robbie the Rabbit, only that it does not result in instant death.
• Sometimes, the game may glitch and accept the bishop instead of knight.[1]