Missing people cases are one of the most difficult cases to solve which was why when Zoey Leonard, a high school student at Riverstone High, went missing on December 23, 2022, the police were quick to dismiss the case as a runaway after 3 weeks of investigation. However, many people were unconvinced by this conclusion because it wasn’t something characteristic of Zoey, a girl with a loving family, great grades, many friends, and a perfect boyfriend. There didn’t seem to be a reason for her to run away.
You play as Adam Lane, a private detective who’s been having difficulty getting back to his feet at work and seems to also be having problems in his own personal life. After getting a text from an unknown sender and being sent a box with items relating to Zoey Leonard, you are pushed into a missing person case which seems to be more than meets the eye.
An Elmwood Trail is an interactive mystery thriller game created by Techyonic, the same developers of here – a puzzle game and Swiftle. The game takes an interesting approach to the genre by having you look through two phones, Adam’s and Zoey’s, to solve puzzles and investigate the case. While much of the game is text-based and will prompt you to choose a dialogue option to reply with, these dialogues do not affect the outcome of the game. It only affects the replies of the characters but the ending and sequence of events will always be the same.
Since this game involves a lot of heavy thinking and complex puzzles, it is not uncommon to get stuck in at least one or two puzzles. If you’re invested in the story and need a little help getting through certain parts of the game, our guide is here to assist you in your quest to find Zoey Leonard and uncover the secrets of Riverstone, the popular kids, and the Old Elm tree at Lake Isle.
You start the game with a message from an unknown sender popping on your phone. Reply to this message and the sender will force you to take up the case about the missing girl, Zoey Leonard. They tell you that the police have given up but they believe that Zoey is still out there.
After your conversation, you’ll receive a text message from Tim, your colleague. Reply to the message and talk to him about taking on the Zoey Leonard case. He’ll decline to help you.
Close the message and tap on the desk icon at the upper left corner of your screen to see what has arrived at your desk. You’ll see a box filled with information about Zoey Leonard. Open it and review its contents.
After going through the box, you’ll get another message from the unknown sender. You’ll tell them that the contents of the box are not very helpful to find her and they’ll send you another gift. Close the message and go back to your desk. You’ll find a small box that contains Zoey Leonard’s cell phone. Boot it open. It will start recovering some data and give you access to it.
Once you open it, You’ll find 4 messages from Mom, 3 messages from Dad, and 27 missed calls from several people on the lock screen. Tap the phone and you’ll be asked to input a 5-digit code. Before you input anything, you’ll receive a text message from the unknown sender on your phone. You’ll question the unknown sender about the source of the phone but they’ll only tell you to hurry up and solve the case.
Close the message and take a look at Zoey’s Student ID. Use her enrollment number, 8-5-18-5, to unlock her phone.
Related: Sidetrails (An Elmwood Trail Side Quests) Walkthrough
Go to your desk and tap on the clipboard. Tap the blinking sentence “Last seen by her father leaving to visit her friend Lily.”
Go to Zoey’s phone and tap her messages with Lily. Tap the blinking words “576 messages deleted.”
Search Zoey’s messages with Valeria and you’ll find a conversation where Zoey tells her Lily’s phone number. Tap Lily’s contact number and your phone will immediately register it.
Start a conversation with Lily on your phone. You’ll talk about the night of her disappearance and the party she went to. She’ll also tell you about her other friend Betty who Lily seems to despise. Before you get the name of the organizer of the party, someone seems to take her phone away from her. This person tells you to stay away from Lily before blocking you.
Go to Zoey’s phone and tap the Recovery icon at the upper left corner of your screen. Tap the Recovery notification and you’ll enter Recovery mode.
In recovery mode, you have to arrange the numbers in their proper order in just 5 moves. However, you can only move the numbers to the spaces left, right, below, and above them.
To do this, take the following steps:
- Switch 14 and 8
- Switch 8 and 10
- Switch 8 and 6
- Switch 6 and 7
- Switch 5 and 1
After successfully solving the puzzle, you’ll recover 2 chats, 3 emails, and 3 photos. Tap to finish.
Check Zoey’s messages with Betty. Scroll all the way up and start reading them. As you scroll down, find the blinking messages that read “OMG.. is Brad planning anything special for you?”, “Then, I’ll just mail them to you.”, “let’s meet at Lily’s place at 8?” and tap them.
Go through Zoey’s mail and look For Betty Hudson’s email. Tap the blinking QR code that says “SCAN FOR LOCATION” and you’ll get the coordinates: 69.2 N, 77.1 W. You won’t actually need to scan the QR code itself for this game, but if you do, you’ll just be opening a Youtube link to the music video of Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley.
Go to your phone and look at your browser. Tap on Riverstone Map, and input the coordinates by tapping the squares at the top of the window. Once you do, you’ll find the location called Treetops Mansion.
Go back to Zoey’s phone, check Betty’s messages, and tap on Betty’s profile picture. Once you do, tap on Betty’s contact number when it appears at the bottom of the screen. This will register Betty’s number to your phone.
Start a conversation with Betty. She’ll tell you that she’s Zoey’s best friend and when Lily is mentioned, she makes fun of her. The conversation eventually steers towards Zoey’s boyfriend, Brad, but Betty claims that she didn’t know where he was during the night of the party. When asked about the Treetops Mansion address, she’ll deny ever being there. She’ll tell you to stay away before going offline.
After the conversation ends, a white circle will appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap it and you’ll be shown a list of sentences regarding what you’ve learned so far. You’ll need to tap the sentences that are connected to each other.
The position of the sentences changes for every playthrough so the image above may not be accurate to your own game. To solve this puzzle, connect the following sentences:
| A | B |
| Where was Zoey last spotted? | Who was the last person Zoey interacted with? |
| Who was organizing this party? | Betty doesn’t want us to know more about the party. |
| Lily said Zoey went straight to the party. | Zoey’s parents and Betty said that Zoey went to Lily’s place. |
Upon connecting the clues, you’ll get to the following conclusions:
Tap the white circle to exit then go to Zoey’s phone and look into her diary. Page 1, Aug 16th, 2022 is recovered but locked. Tap the page and you’ll be given a riddle to solve to unlock it.
Go to Zoey’s gallery and tap on the image of her pink bike. You’ll find the caption “From mom” above it. Go back to the diary, input those words by tapping the up and down arrows and it should unlock the page.
The diary entry talks about Zoey’s 18th birthday and seems to be very normal. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find something doodled on it. This is the password for the hidden images in Zoey’s gallery. Take note of it as it will be important for later.
You’ll get a message from Lily right after this. She’ll explain that her mother was the one who blocked you. You’ll talk about your conversation with Betty and how she doesn’t seem to be willing to talk. Lily will advise you to find something to blackmail her with.
Go to Zoey’s phone gallery and tap on the hidden icon at the upper left corner of the screen.
Use the arrow directions you found in Zoey’s phone to open it. The solution should look like this:
Once unlocked, you’ll find an image of Betty throwing up on the toilet.
Send the image to Betty and she’ll start panicking but won’t reveal anything until you threaten to send it to Lily. She’ll eventually tell you that the address is Kyle’s uncle’s house and that Kyle is her boyfriend. However, when asked to give Kyle’s number, she’ll refuse and end the conversation.
Go to your desk and inspect the small brown envelope that just arrived.
Inside, you’ll find a picture of Zoey wearing a purple outfit and going inside a White Falco Car with the last number “42”. You’ll need to find a website that can help you find the owner of the car.
Go to Zoey’s phone and search her mail. You’ll find an ad for Fiesta Motor Infos, a website that lets you find any car’s details by describing them.
Go to your phone and type “fiesta.com” in your browser. Select Falco for the Model, Sedan for the Type, and White for the Color then tap “Find matches.”
You’ll get three matches: Bill Anderson, Mike Davis, and Timothy Fernandes. Among these three, only Bill Anderson and Mike Davis have “42” as their last number. If you message Bill Anderson, you’ll get an angry reply because he does not know who Zoey is. Mike Davis is the correct person to message.
Start a conversation with Mike and confront him about Zoey’s photo. He’ll tell you that Zoey had a fight with Brad and that he tried to help her by giving her emotional support. But instead of making her feel better, Mike tried to make a move on her. She rejected his advances and left. The conversation will eventually go to asking Mike for Kyle’s contact details. Mike will tell you he’s not close with Kyle but tells you that Betty is the key to everything connected to Kyle. He will also tell you about emails Betty sends to everyone about her merch and how she used to have girl’s night every Friday at Margerie’s.
After the conversation, tap the white circle that will appear at the bottom of the screen to connect the relevant clues together. To solve this puzzle, connect the following sentences:
| A | B |
| The photo and note were sent anonymously. | Someone knew Mike likes Zoey and waited for the right moment to snap the photo. |
| Only way to get Kyle’s number is through his girlfriend. | Betty runs a website and spams everyone about her merch. |
| Zoey had left the party and was sitting alone outside. | Zoey and Brad had a terrible fight. |
Upon connecting the clues, you’ll get to the following conclusions:
Afterwards, you’ll get a message from Techyonic who’ll ask you to rate the game. It’s up to you if you want to, but the game will proceed as normal after this message.
Go to your phone’s messages and open up your messages with Maxwell. He will confront you about taking up Zoey’s case. Afterwards, go to Zoey’s phone and tap on the Recovery icon on the upper left corner of her screen to continue the recovery process.
For this mini-game, you’ll find 9 boxes on the screen. 3 of these boxes have Xs on them while 6 of them are blank. If you tap the blank boxes, an arrow will appear and every box in the direction of that arrow will be highlighted gray. Tapping the blank boxes more than once will change the arrow directions or remove them. Having more than one arrow point at a box will remove its highlight. The goal is to highlight all the blank boxes without highlighting the boxes with Xs on them. In our playthrough, this is the solution we came up with:
After solving the puzzle, you’ll unlock 1 chat message, 2 emails, and 2 photos. Tap to finish.
Check Zoey’s mail and inspect the email she got from Betty Hudson regarding her newest merch.
Inside the email, you’ll find a picture of her wearing a pink hoodie with her website’s URL on it: bettyblogs.com.
Go to your phone’s browser and type bettyblogs.com. on it to get to the website. You’ll find four blog posts on it. Tap on the one titled: Kyle and I are stronger than ever.
Inside you’ll find a blinking picture of Kyle with his number printed on the back of his hoodie. Tap on the picture and you’ll automatically register his phone in your phone.
Start a conversation with Kyle. He will admit to organizing the party at his uncle’s mansion. He also confirms that Betty helped him with the party and that Zoey and Betty arrived together. He will also tell you that Brad dared a friend to spill a drink on Zoey’s dress which made her mad and was the cause of their argument. When asked to give a list of people who were invited, he tells you that he’ll tell Betty to send it to you.
Go to Zoey’s diary and tap on Page 2, Aug 23rd, 2022. You’ll get another riddle for a four-letter word.
Go to her gallery and look at the pictures dated Jul 12th, 2022. All of these pictures have clocks and the hands spell out the word “LIVE.” Go back to the diary and enter the password.
In her page 2 diary entry, she talks about how she started bonding with Betty Johnson after they had detention together and how she started getting strange letters with sketchy symbols on them. At the bottom of the entry, she drew an image of the symbol.
Tap on the recovery icon on the upper left corner of her screen to continue the recovery process.
For this mini-game, you need to tap on the three circles to change their number so that it will all amount to 71. You’ll need to press the button below the circles to calculate it. The formula is as follows:
a x b – c = 71
The first circle (a), when tapped, will have these numbers:
- No tap = 0
- Tap once = 26
- Tap twice = 27
- Tap thrice = 28
The second circle (b), when tapped, will have these numbers:
- No tap = 0
- Tap once = 1
- Tap twice = 2
- Tap thrice = 3
The third circle (c), when tapped, will have these numbers:
- No tap = 0
- Tap once = 10
- Tap twice = 20
- Tap thrice = 30
To get 71, the correct numbers would be 27 x 3 – 10 = 71. The solution should look like this:
After solving the puzzle, you’ll unlock 2 chat messages, 1 email, and 2 photos. Tap to finish.
Go to your messages and you’ll find a message from Betty. She’ll tell you that she doesn’t have a list of people who she sent the passes to and her email history is cleared every 2 weeks. Instead, she’ll tell you who she remembers was there. You’ll notice that she mentioned Lily even though Lily had told you previously that she did not go to the party. She’ll also confirm that Zoey did get mad at Brad over him daring Luke to spill a drink on Zoey’s dress.
Start a conversation with Lily. When confronted about her being at Betty’s party, Lily will tell you that she is lying and just wants you to suspect her.
Go to Zoey’s Pixabowl. If you tap “Forgot password?”, it’ll ask you for your pet’s name. To get Zoey’s pet’s name, go to her gallery and tap on the very first picture on her gallery, dated Dec 13th, 2022, that just got recovered.
The picture is very distorted and you’ll need to edit it to make it clearer. Tap on the third icon and it will allow you to edit it.
Adjust the brightness by 76 and the contrast by 37 and you’ll get this image:
Go back to Zoey’s Pixabowl and enter “Jerry” as the pet name and the account will be unlocked. On the very first post, tap on fiery.betty.
Tap on the very first image in her Pixabowl. Upon opening it, tap on Lily’s blinking image.
Go back to your phone’s messages with Lily and send her the photo of her that you found on Betty’s account. After seeing the photo, she’ll agree to cooperate in exchange for deleting the photo in your messages. Scroll up and tap on the red trash can icon to the left of the image to delete it. However, instead of giving you more information, she will just block you.
Tap the white circle that appears at the bottom of your screen after the conversation. You’ll once again have to connect relevant clues together. To solve this puzzle, connect the following sentences:
| A | B |
| Kyle called Zoey and Brad’s fight a minor argument. | Zoey was clearly affected and very upset according to what Mike had said. |
| Brad and Zoey fight amidst the pool party. | Brad’s dare to spoil Zoey’s dress. |
| Photo of Lily being pushed by someone into the pool. | Lily was at the party and didn’t want us to know about it. |
Upon connecting the clues, you’ll get to the following conclusions:
Tap the white circle to finish.
Go to your phone and reply to a message from Emma, Zoe’s mother. She’ll reveal a few things about Zoey such as how her mobile and bicycle were missing and that the police ruled her as a runaway because other teens have done it before. She tells you that she frequents Lily’s place, the nearby cafe, her dad’s shop, and the Elmwood Forest. She also tells you that she was able to get into Hurton University but they wouldn’t send her out because they were afraid for her and they didn’t have the money for it.
Go to Zoey’s phone and check her third diary page, Sep 4th, 2022.
For this riddle, you have to go to her Pixabowl and look at her profile by tapping on her profile picture or name. If you look at her caption, it reads “A life waiting at your side.” If you take all the first letters of the words in that sentence, it will spell out the word “Always.” Enter the word and you’ll unlock the third page.
In the diary, she’ll talk about how she felt like someone was watching her and it was giving her nightmares.
Go back to your phone and reply to Zac, Zoey’s brother, who just messaged you. He’ll tell you that his whole family had no idea that she was going to the party and that he got a call from her at 11:30 PM. He will send you an audio recording of the call which only had background noise and taps. Count the number of taps per pause and you’ll get the number 3-1-6-4-2-1-2.
Call the number on your phone and you’ll be connected to the Riverstone Car Wash. The automated voice will tell you to press 1 to book a carwash, press 2 to hear the latest offers, and press 3 to learn more. 1 and 2 won’t do anything so press 3 for now. It will then tell you to press 1 to learn their timings or schedule, 2 to join their club, and 3 to go back. At this time, 1 doesn’t seem important so press 2 instead. You’ll be asked to input a membership code to join the club, with the last three words overlaid with an unsettling voice.
You’ll suddenly get a message from an unknown number. End the call for now and reply to the message. She’ll tell you that she’s Lily and she’s messaging from her second number. She’ll reveal that while she wasn’t at the party to celebrate with the others, she was there because Zoey called her at 9:30 PM to fetch Rajan. Rajan tried to enter the party uninvited and was knocked out by Kyle and his friends. Zoey called Lily because her mother was a doctor and they didn’t want a police case filed against them. However, when Lily got there, a girl pushed her into the pool. When they left, Zoey stayed behind and argued with Betty and the girl. She also confirms that Zoey did go to her place to change into her dress before she went to the party.
After the conversation, tap the white circle that will appear at the bottom of your screen and select the events in the order that they happened:
- Zoey leaves Lily’s place for the party.
- Drinks, games along the poolside with Betty, Kyle, and Brad.
- Someone spills a drink over Zoey’s dress on Brad’s dare.
- Rajan trespasses and is knocked down by Kyle and other guys.
- Lily arrives to get Rajan when some girl pushes her into the pool.
- Zoey escapes outside feeling devastated because of Brad and everything else.
- Mike approaches her on the porch but ends up imposing his feelings on her in his car.
- Zoey pushes Mike and walks out away from the worst night of her life. She later calls Zac around 11 PM.
Tap the white circle to finish.
Go to Zoey’s diary and tap on Page 4, Sep 8th, 2022. Another riddle is presented with a 4-letter word answer.
To solve this riddle, go to your phone’s browser and tap “About Riverstone.” From that page, you’ll see the Elm Tree with a sign that says “Stay away.” The location is Lake Isle. Input “isle” in the 4th-page riddle and it should unlock the page.
The page will talk about how Kevin introduced Zoey to the spot by the old Elm tree and how she has been spending a lot of time alone there. She also talks about how she received a strange email that had something strange in it.
Go to Zoey’s mail and look for the email for [emailprotected]. You’ll notice in the advertisement that a few letters are highlighted and they spell out “vault8.com.”
Go to your phone’s browser and type vault8.com. You’ll be taken to a website with a black background and the strange symbol Zoey saw before. Tap “BEGIN” and you’ll play a text-based adventure game where the objective is to find the vault.
To complete the game, choose the following options for each question:
- Forest Trail
- Along the path
- Hide behind the old tree
- Take the key
- Distract it
- City Road
- Poorly Lit
- Run
- Check it out
- Go down inside
- Left
- Yes
If done right, you’ll get the screen below:
Close the browser and use your phone to call the Riverstone Carwash once more. Press 3 then 2 then input the numbers “123-5789” when asked for a membership code. It will accept this and they will tell you in an unsettling voice that they will get in touch with you.
After the call, tap the white circle that appears at the bottom of the screen and connect the relevant clues together. To solve the puzzle, connect the following sentences:
| A | B |
| The number Zoey tried to give to her brother is of a car wash that required some sort of code. | The carwash membership code was retrieved from Vault 8. |
| Zoey received a red envelope with a strange symbol. | The Vault8 website also had that strange symbol. |
| Vault8 seems to talk about a city and a forest with a lake. | Lake Isle in Elmwood Forest was Zoey’s favorite spot to go. |
Upon connecting the clues, you’ll get to the following conclusions:
Tap the white circle to finish.
Go to Zoey’s phone and tap the recovery icon at the upper left corner of the screen to continue the recovery process.
For this puzzle, the objective is to convert all square outlines into full squares. Each square you tap will convert that square and the square above, below, to the left and to the right of it. To solve this puzzle, tap the following squares in order:
After solving the puzzle, you’ll recover 1 email, 2 chats, and 2 photos. Tap to finish.
Go to Zoey’s phone and investigate the group chat “Chicks and Kicks.” Scroll all the way to the top of the chat before reading their conversations. You’ll learn that Brad bought Zoey an expensive dress and asked Kyle to give it to her. However, because Kyle fell asleep during class and wasn’t woken up by Rajan, he got detention and wasn’t able to give her the dress. You’ll also find out that Zoey invited Kevin to the party and was planning to wear the purple dress Kevin gave her which upset Brad.
Search for and tap the blinking messages: “What?? Now you’re gonna wear a dress gifted by Kevin at my party??” and “They cannot find out about the party man. We’ll be dead.”
After that, tap on Brad’s contact number in the same group chat and it will be registered on your own phone.
Start a conversation with Brad. After just 1 message, he will instantly block you.
Since he won’t answer your messages, use your phone to call Brad’s number: 677-8654. He’ll angrily tell you that he has nothing to do with Zoey’s disappearance and to leave him alone.
After the call, you’ll get a message from Rajan. Reply to him and he’ll tell you that Kyle and Brad stole two cartons of drinks from Margerie’s. His manager wants him to find proof of who stole it in 30 days or else he has to pay for those drinks. He agrees to tell you about what he knows about the night of Zoey’s disappearance if you help him. He’ll give you the missing carton’s IDs which are IC-821738 and IC-821739.
Go to Zoey’s Pixabowl and scroll down the posts until you find melanie.mathews.
Tap on her name or profile picture to view her profile and tap the picture of Kyle holding a bottle with the carton of drinks behind him. Tap the blinking picture and send it to Rajan.
After receiving the picture, Rajan will send it to his manager and start telling you about what happened during the party. He’ll tell you that he trespassed at the party because he wanted to get proof that Kyle and Brad stole the cartons. However, Kyle caught him and he and his friends beat him up. He passed out and woke up at Lily’s place.
Go to Zoey’s phone and listen in to the group chat. You’ll find out that police showed up at Kyle’s house and his dad had to pay a fine of $2,000. Brad claims he knows who was behind this and will message you on your phone.
Brad will confront you about the picture that was sent to the police but will fold after you mention the heavy fine they had to pay to the police. He’ll ask about what you’ve learned about Zoey without really giving you any info he knows himself. He’ll get defensive when asked if Brad saw Zoey leaving the party and end the conversation.
Kevin will message Zoey’s phone saying he found something that could help him find her. Reply to him using Zoey’s phone. He’ll be surprised that someone else has her phone but will cooperate. He’ll reveal that they left the party together and walked to Riverstone town center where they parted ways. He’ll also tell you that she had her bicycle with her which he brought because she asked him to repair it. When asked what Kevin found, he’ll tell you that he found the bracelet Lily gave her wrapped in a crumpled paper with strange symbols and marks by the Old Elm tree near Lake Isle. He’ll agree to send you the paper to your address.
After your conversation with Kevin ends, you’ll notice some activity in the group chat. Brad will send a file labeled “EVIDENCE.zip” in the chat. Tap it and it will cause Zoey’s phone to black out.
Zoey’s phone assistant, Paul, will introduce itself to you and explain that you ran a suspicious file on your phone and locked yourself out. To regain access to your phone, you’ll have to answer a few questions to prove that you are Zoey. Tap begin.
For question 1, you’ll need to find a 3-digit number. To get the answer, go to your phone and talk to Rajan. Ask him what the correct answer is for the quiz competition and it will be 217. Input this number to move on to the next question.
For question 2, you need to get a code that comprises of dots and dashes. Since the clue tells you that the location is in her voice, you’ll need to call Zoey’s phone.
Go to your desk and look at your clipboard to get Zoey’s contact number which is 630-1721. Call the number using your phone and you’ll hear a recorded voicemail that tells you that if she doesn’t respond, she can be found at Lily’s place.
Message Lily and she’ll reveal that she has a treehouse and that you can only get to it with a ladder that only drops with a specific sequence using one short rope and one long rope. Translating her directions into dots and dashes, you’ll get this code: . – .. .. . …
Input the code to move on to the next question.
For question 3, you can find the answer from your conversation with Emma, Zoey’s mother. She mentions that Zoey wanted to go to Hurton University. Input the name to move on to the next question.
For question 4, the answer is the title of the game: An Elmwood Trail. Input the words to regain access to Zoey’s phone and tap on access granted.
Look at the group chat and listen in to their conversation. It reveals that they purposely made him download a malicious file. So now they know that you have Zoey’s phone.
Go to your desk and inspect the white envelope that just arrived. You’ll find a note that has a similar question and options as the one on the “vault8.com” website.
Tap the white circle that appeared at the bottom of your screen to connect the relevant clues.
| A | B |
| Brad, Kyle and Betty are definitely hiding something and acting suspicious. | Brad and his friends denied being involved in anything and are planning something at his place. |
| Brad’s group knows that we have Zoey’s phone and don’t want us to find something on it. | Attempt to wipe Zoey’s phone data through a trojan file sent in the group chat. |
| Zoey’s bracelet was found near the lake. | The strange symbol that Zoey had received is on Vault8 and now also the crumpled paper Kevin sent us. |
Upon connecting the clues, you’ll get to the following conclusions:
Tap the white circle to finish.
You’ll find a box sent to your desk. Upon opening it, you’ll find the top part of Zoey’s bike with what looks like blood, and strange symbols on her bike and the box it came with. And with that, Chapter 1 of An Elmwood Trail ends.
At the time of writing this article, only 1 Episode has been released. However, rest assured that once the next episodes are published, we will also be covering Episode 2 and the succeeding episodes, creating an easy-to-follow walkthrough for those who are lost or stuck on one of the puzzles. Did we miss anything? Is there any extra info you’d like to share about the game? Let us know in the comments below!
