Contrast (Xbox 360) 100% guide

Didi's drawing is on the bureau where you start. It is your first Act I collectible, so pick it up before leaving the room.

Inside the club, two collectibles must be picked up before you leave:

• The Child Services notice about Didi, on a table on the upper balcony.
• Johnny's bounced check, on the floor under the staircase.

Watch Didi when she heads out. Don't follow her through the door until both items are in your collection, because the door closes behind you.

After the club, Didi gives you the Dash, and you come out across the street near the gate she opens. Both off-path achievements in this stretch are close together, so clear them before moving on.

This chapter leads to the billboard gap on the way to the Cinema, where two achievements share one jump. They can't both unlock on the same attempt, so secure the harder one first:

1. Cross cleanly first for Now That's Thinking With Shadows.
2. Then fall on purpose for My God, It's Full Of Stars! Once you're across, drop off the billboard supports into the void. If you can't reach the void from there, Restart from Last Save and step off the gap deliberately.

If you fall on your first try, you get My God, It's Full Of Stars! instead. Restart from Last Save, which resets the attempt for this jump, and cross cleanly. If you're still missing either one after the credits, Chapter Select can bring you back to The Usual Suspects.

Two easy-to-miss collectibles are on the way in. Grab both before going into the projection room:

• The "closed" note at the ticket booth.
• The prison release form on the second floor.

The umbrella courtyard after the Cinema and the hotel floors hold more luminaries, but none of them are needed for achievements. The last Act I collectible is Carmine's debt book, which shows the $20,000 Johnny owes. It is just inside the Excelsior entrance. After the Carmine and Sal cutscene, turn back toward the front door and grab it from the table on your left before heading upstairs.

Act II opens in Johnny and Didi's apartment, and three things here are easy to miss. Don't skip any cutscenes in this section.

Turn around at the start to pick up Johnny's picture. Then deal with the family portrait upstairs before you head down.

The Picture of Johnny's Family is behind the curtain inside the circus tent. It shows Didi with her parents. It is the most commonly missed collectible in the game. A luminary sits in the same spot.

Outside the tent you can repair the three attractions in any order. From left to right they are the pirate ship, the puppet theater and the carousel with its hot air balloon. This guide does the carousel first and saves the ship for last, because the final collectible comes after the ship. Either of the first two works.

Sources disagree on whether the carousel needs two luminaries or three, so collect all three of these before you power it and insert as many as the device asks for:

1. The luminary behind the curtain in the circus tent.
2. The one in the dead-end alley just past the carousel's control switch.
3. The film-reel balcony luminary. From the carousel, go left and down the alley, then turn left to the floating film reel. Step in and climb the shadows up to the balcony.

The repair manual is the last Act II collectible. It sits right beside the generator controls, next to the levers. Grab it before you restart the generator, because you can't return to it afterward.

The opening streets have Act III's four luminaries and no collectibles. Sources disagree on whether Vincenzo's Solar Machine takes two or three luminaries, so collect at least these three before powering it:

1. Under the arch near the café tables by the Workshop.
2. Up the stairs at the end of the street, opposite the Workshop.
3. Down the alley stairs, then turn left.

The fourth is optional. It is at the top of the shadow climb at the gun icon. Insert however many the machine asks for.

The Workshop holds 3 of the 10 Act III collectibles. All three must be in your collection before the secret room cutscene, or you'll have to replay this section.

• A science picture in the Clock Tower. After the music room, go down the stairs, and it is behind the glass cases on the left.
• A second science picture. After riding the janitor's shadow up to a balcony, go down the stairs, and it is on the wall at the bottom.

Before you cross the clock face, open both sets of double doors in the room with two sets of them. This creates a way back in if you miss a jump.

• The "Illusionist Cancels Shows" newspaper, on the floor to the left right after you jump through the clock face.

Three Act III collectibles share the name Science Picture: two here in the Workshop and one in the Lighthouse. The Collectibles menu doesn't list Act III items in pickup order. If one is missing, tell the Science Pictures apart by their locations in this guide rather than by where they sit in the menu.

The remaining 7 Act III collectibles are all inside the lighthouse, and none are hidden behind puzzles. Work through it in order:

1. The photo of a girl's shadow beside a woman, on the wall left of the switch that lowers the ramp.
2. The William James lecture, on the floor left of the column in the shutters room.
3. The missing illusionist newspaper, on a box right of the column in the same room.
4. The picture of the shadow dimension's effect, on a box right of the stairs after the shutters.
5. The skeleton shadow picture, behind the column on the floor with the two light poles.
6. A science picture, behind the same column.
7. The picture of Vincenzo and Dawn, on an easel on the upper floor, in front of you if you take the left gears.

HISTORICALLY REPORTED BUG (Xbox 360, reports through January 2021): the lighthouse can occasionally break progression. There are three reported failures:

• The opening spotlight doesn't power its target.
• The shadow box disappears or floats away.
• The final spotlight doesn't trigger the cutscene.

To help prevent the final spotlight failure, keep the spotlight locked onto the stage until the cutscene starts, and don't leave its controls early. The developer confirmed this cause and workaround for the PC version only. The Xbox 360 reports were made separately, and their cause isn't confirmed to be the same, so this precaution may not prevent them.

If any of these happens, work through these steps in order:

1. Restart from Last Save. This sends you back to the bottom of the lighthouse.
2. If the problem repeats, fully quit to the dashboard, relaunch the game and load your save. For a stuck spotlight, do this full restart rather than reloading the checkpoint over and over.
3. If it still won't progress, repeat the full relaunch and replay the lighthouse from your last save. Chapter Select only unlocks after you finish the game, so it isn't available on a first run. If you've already beaten the game and are replaying, you can also restart the lighthouse chapter from the beginning through Chapter Select.

Lighthouse collectibles you already picked up stay in your collection.

HISTORICALLY REPORTED BUG: Streets Sweeper, GroundsKeeper and BookKeeper have been reported failing to unlock even when every item in that act shows as collected. Most of these reports, and the New Game workaround below, come from the Xbox One version. They aren't confirmed as current on Xbox 360. Work through these steps in order:

1. Check for a real gap. Open the Collectibles menu and count the act against its total of 10, 6 or 10. Items aren't listed in pickup order, so match each one against the locations in this guide. The usual misses are the Ghost Note and Cinema items, the Picture of Johnny's Family behind the tent curtain, the eviction notice not picked up after its cutscene, and the three Science Pictures. If something really is missing, load its chapter through Chapter Select and collect it. Chapter Select is for missing items only, since items you already have may not reappear on a replay.
2. Allow for a delayed unlock. This game's achievements sometimes sync late. Open the game's achievement page on your Xbox profile and give it some time before assuming it failed.
3. Relaunch and resync. Fully quit the game, then relaunch it and check your profile's achievement page again.
4. Last resort. Reported on Xbox One, not confirmed on Xbox 360, and not a guaranteed fix: start a New Game, play to the affected act, and pick up its first collectible. In reported cases that alone triggered the missing achievement. If it doesn't, keep collecting that act's set. Success isn't guaranteed.

There are isolated reports of story achievements such as Room 529, How'd You Get In? and Let There Be Light not unlocking at their trigger. Nothing shows these failing consistently. If one is missing:

1. Open the game's achievement page on your Xbox profile and give it time to sync.
2. Fully quit and relaunch the game, then check again.
3. If it's still missing, load the chapter that contains the trigger through Chapter Select and play through that moment again.