The Archives Update splits its badges across two hidden areas, the Archives Subfloor reached through the Hotel and the Stairwell Subfloor tucked inside the Mines. Collecting the full set means visiting both, and a handful of badges force you to begin your run from the Hotel rather than dropping straight into the Archives from the Lobby. Several also require repeat attempts, so plan a few dedicated runs.
Quick answer: Enter the Archives through the Hotel to unlock the entry badges, survive each unique entity and hazard along the 1,300-door route, fill your hotbar for the item badges, use a Crucifix on the Portrait entity for Annihilation, then clear the Mines’ Stairwell Subfloor for its nine badges. Most badges register the moment their condition is met.
Set up your runs before hunting badges
A few badges cannot be earned if you take the shortcut from the Lobby. Forgotten Memories and Annihilation both depend on starting in the Hotel, since the Crucifix only exists there and one entry badge specifically checks that you walked into the Archives from the Hotel floor. Bring gold as well. Each section holds 50 doors, and paying gold lets you skip whole sections, which matters when a badge sits deep in the route.
Note: The Emergency Exit spawns at every 50th door after Section C and sends you back to the Hotel if that is where your run began. That exit is your safety net for carrying the Portrait entity back to the Hotel for the Crucifix badges.
General badges in Section A
Both general badges can be cleared early in Section A, so there is no reason to leave them for a later run.
| Badge | How to unlock |
|---|---|
| Quick Purchase | Buy a Shakelight from the green vending machine for 10 Gold. |
| Unpatched Dupe Glitch | Use a printer to scan and print an item. The print does not add a real item, but running it once triggers the badge. |
Entity and hazard badges in the Archives
Most entity badges simply require you to survive the encounter. A few, like Smashing Deal and the Portrait chain, need extra steps. Two of the tougher ones, Most Valuable Employee and Star Employee, revolve around Honcho, whose spawn is not guaranteed and who may not appear at all across some runs.
| Badge | How to unlock |
|---|---|
| It’s Still You | Stare into a bathroom mirror until it cracks and spawns the Portrait entity. |
| Firewall | Survive the Ransom entity by paying it enough gold to make it leave. |
| Feed the Fih | Grab the blue bottle of food and feed the Fih in an aquarium. One feed is enough. |
| Crowd Watching | Survive the Drone stampede that starts at 9 and 5 on the clock. Stay off the main door path, or hide in a closet or side room. |
| Now Served | Take the Teller’s ticket and hand it back when her countdown reaches your ticket number, within the few-second window she gives you. |
| Perfect Memory | Escape the subway section. Memorize the first room, move forward if the next room matches, and turn back if a detail like color or a missing wet-floor sign has changed. |
| Shock Hazard | Survive a Currents hazard by crossing puddles only while they are not charged. Sparkling water and an electric hum mean they are live. |
| Carpet Burn | Survive Bash by ducking into a side room or closet as it tears through the rooms. |
| Smashing Deal | Summon the Portrait at a bathroom mirror, equip an item you want copied, then take the duplicate from the Portrait’s hand. |
| Witness Protection | Survive Alma by never looking at her while she circles you. Track her position by her crying and face the other way. |
| Limitless Paper | Survive Scribbles by hiding in a closet. The screen shaking is your warning that it is arriving. |
| Who Am I? | Reach S-50, take the hallway on the right where a closet usually sits, follow the signs, and turn toward Archives for a short cutscene about your character. A new “Me” entry appears in the journal. |
| Most Valuable Employee | Organize the Mail Room while Honcho chases you. |
| Star Employee | During the Honcho sequence, give him the Starlight Bottle from the Backdoors and complete the mail-room minigame. This requires reaching a different floor first. |
One additional entity badge, Redacted, has no confirmed unlock condition at this time.
Item badges and the hotbar fills
Two item badges, Enlightened and Girl Dinner, are the biggest grind because a single Archives run cannot supply enough of the right items. You have to gather light sources and edible items across multiple floors. The Shakelight can only occupy one hotbar slot, so it alone will not complete Enlightened.
| Badge | How to unlock |
|---|---|
| Gold Standard | Find and use the Honey Pot, which spawns in drawers or on the floor when Ransom starts hacking you. Breaking it satisfies Ransom instantly, though keeping it until Ransom leaves lets you retain more gold. |
| Enlightened | Fill your entire hotbar with different light sources gathered across floors. |
| Girl Dinner | Fill your entire hotbar with different edible items collected across floors. |
| Pizza Time | Fill your entire hotbar with pizza. Visit a section labeled Pizza Party on the computer to stock up quickly. |
A fifth item badge, Bad Luck, does not yet have a confirmed method.
Annihilation: The Crucifix badge
Annihilation is the only Crucifix badge, and it is tied to the Portrait entity. Because the Crucifix comes from the Hotel, you cannot start this from the Archives Lobby.
Archives entry and exit badges
The floor badges are the simplest set. They come down to how you enter and how you leave the Archives.
| Badge | How to unlock |
|---|---|
| Forgotten Memories | Enter the Archives through the Hotel, not through the Lobby. |
| Emergency Exit | Escape the Archives via the Emergency Exit that spawns at every 50th door after Section C. It returns you to the Hotel if that is where your run began. |
| Z-50 | Complete Z-50, the final section, for a standard exit. Skip sections with gold to reach it. This escape drops you into the Stairwell. |
Stairwell Subfloor badges in the Mines
The Stairwell Subfloor sits inside the Mines and carries its own nine badges, complete with new entities. Entering and escaping the Stairwell each award a badge on their own.
| Badge | How to unlock |
|---|---|
| Going Down | Enter the Stairwell Subfloor. |
| Going Up | Escape the Stairwell. |
| Rage Room | Disable the Noise entity by grabbing the TV set and shoving it down the stairs to break it. |
| Paparazzi | Scare away the Creep entity as it moves to grab you from behind. |
| Fried Mushroom | Use the Fire Alarm to incinerate the Meld entity. |
| Bubble Popping | Pop the Stem entity by throwing it. |
| Paperclip Challenge | Use an item on the Depot. |
| Storage Wars | Deposit 1,000 or more Gold at the Depot in a single deposit. |
| Hello Walker | Encounter the Cobbler entity, which does not harm you. |
Work through the survival and entry badges first, since those clear naturally as you push through the Archives, then set aside separate runs for the hotbar fills and the Honcho-dependent badges that need luck and cross-floor prep. Two badges, Redacted and Bad Luck, remain without confirmed methods, so hold off on those until their conditions are pinned down.
