Welcome to Elderfield Time to Investigate: Stuck at 6/7

Quick answer: At 6/7 in Time to Investigate, check the seven Mysteries in Town, Sewers, and the Mall: Dave's House, the Parks & Recreation Office, and five Mall objects listed below. Old Woods and News Channel Mysteries do not count toward Akira's first task. Finish the missing eligible interaction, then return to Akira to hand in the final stage.

The seven-location checklist

Use this list to mark distinct places you have investigated. The object descriptions identify the Mystery interaction, not every decorative item in the room. At each location, interact until you reach the investigation prompt and complete its event; simply walking past the object is not the same check.

The regional breakdown is one Town, one Sewer, and five Mall Mysteries. It is useful at 6/7 because a vague recollection of “doing the Mall” can hide a missed shop interior. Compare the individual objects rather than ticking off an entire district after one interaction.

The locations come from the Community Wiki's Mysteries entry, reviewed October 2, 2026. The counting boundary comes from its Tasks entry. Use the descriptions as landmarks; this site has not added invented coordinates or a claimed fastest travel route.

Start with the Mall interiors when the journal says 6/7

Our suggested search order is the Food Court, the two named shop interiors, then the hallway objects. This groups nearby checks and makes it harder to confuse a shop visit with a finished investigation. It is an editorial checklist order, not a measured speedrun route.

1. At the Food Court, enter Jon's Smoothies and check the fleshy object.
2. Go into Sports Planet and inspect the dark counter.
3. Check the Empty Store for the arcade machine.
4. In the hallway, inspect the ATM and the tree separately.
5. If all five Mall entries are confirmed, revisit Dave's House and the Parks & Recreation Office.

Read the journal before starting and again after each first-time investigation. Write down the room and object when the counter changes. This turns “I have been everywhere” into a short record you can use to find the seventh place or explain a reproducible problem.

Find Akira and finish each hand-in

The task reference places Akira in the Town South apartment, second floor. Talk to him to start Time to Investigate and return when you reach its thresholds. The stages ask for 1, 3, 5, and finally 7 qualifying discoveries.

If you explored before accepting the task, speak to Akira and inspect the stage that actually appears. Do not assume you must replay every discovery, and do not assume the initial conversation completed every intermediate report. The current journal and remaining dialogue tell you which hand-in is still pending.

Why an Old Woods discovery does not raise this counter

Akira's early investigation task uses the initial seven Town, Mall, and Sewers Mysteries. The Old Woods has its own set of investigations, and News Channel events belong to another source of discoveries. A new event can therefore be real progress elsewhere without moving Time to Investigate from 6/7 to 7/7.

This matches the kind of confusion described in the September 27–28 Steam discussion: players found new Old Woods Mysteries while the early task stayed at six. The thread is evidence of the symptom, not proof that every affected save is healthy.

For this task, take the seven-place checklist back into the starting regions. Searching more forest clearings will not replace a missed Mall shop object. Once Akira's task is complete, return to the forest for its separate rewards and objectives.

Bathing resets interactions, not the missing location

The Mystery reference says bathing resets Mystery events so you can investigate them again. That is useful for repeat rewards, but the completion problem here is finding the full set of qualifying discoveries. Repeating a familiar ATM visit is not a substitute for checking an overlooked location.

Keep two notes separate: which of the seven places you have investigated and which places are currently available to interact with again. A reset changes the second note. At 6/7, work from the first one and look for a distinct unchecked place.

Do not chase a particular rare reward or high die result solely to finish this task. The Mystery rewards table describes what an event can grant; Akira's objective is the investigation milestone. Complete the interaction and check the counter before spending time rerolling that same spot.

Prepare for Mystery outcomes before checking the last spot

Bring healing supplies and inspect your condition before the sweep. Mystery events can produce damage, curses, or combat, so a search route can use more resources than a normal shopping trip. If an outcome starts a battle, finish the event or record how you exited before checking the journal again.

The v1.0.2 sleep fix concerns permanent stat loss from nighttime sleep rolls on Normal or lower. It does not establish that every Mystery roll is harmless. Treat the two systems separately when deciding whether to investigate with low HP.

If a sewer gate blocks your route, use the Gatekeeper and key guide to identify the required key stage. If Mall access is your obstacle, the Basic Axe task route explains Adrian's hallway key. Solve the access requirement, then return to this checklist.

If all seven are checked and the counter still reads 6/7

Install the latest Steam update and preserve the affected save. Confirm that the journal names Time to Investigate, finish any pending Akira dialogue, and review each row for an actual investigation rather than a remembered room visit.

If the mismatch remains, report the counter, task stage, game version, and the seven object locations you checked. Include a screenshot immediately before and after the interaction that should have been new. Mention whether the save came from an older build and whether any event was interrupted.

That evidence helps separate an excluded discovery, a missed hand-in, and a save-specific counting failure. Restarting the entire character before making this record can erase the information needed to diagnose the problem.