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Tide Sound Archives — Complete Walkthrough

Tide Sound Archives: Complete Walkthrough & Full Puzzle Guide
Header illustration generated for this article with an AI image model. It is promotional art, not an in-game screenshot.

About the game

Tide Sound Archives is an investigative ARG played inside a fake browser. You are a reporter at the Lancheng Daily. Twenty-one years ago your mother, Su Xiaowen, disappeared from the lighthouse district; the official story says the typhoon took her, and all she left behind is a notebook. Its last page holds one sentence:

“FM 91.7 — they are signalling from in there.”

An anonymous email from “the Lighthouse Keeper” pulls you back to 2003. Search, decode and tune across 6 simulated websites and 55 pages, uncover Project Tidal, then decide how your mother and the other six will be remembered.

The 2026-10-26 version removed the old “Tidal Protocol / seven worlds” epilogue. The story now has one motive: your mother is still down there. Every answer below was re-run against this version.

Basic controls

Prologue: an anonymous email

The opening email from the Lighthouse Keeper gives three actions:

  1. Search 失踪 and read the coverage from that year;
  2. Visit the forum and see what locals say;
  3. Pay attention to 赵明远.

The email states plainly that your mother’s name is the sixth line of the seven-name list. She is not a statistic “swept away by the waves”; that is the only private motive in the game.

Initial keywords usually include 失踪, 灯塔, 澜城; if they are missing from the search panel, clicking the highlighted words in the email adds them.

Chapter One: The anonymous tip

Available sites: Lancheng News, Lancheng Forum.

Goal: the clue "The seven missing".

  1. Search 失踪 → open “Seven in the fog: the complete record of the 2003 Lighthouse District disappearances”.
  2. Read the list: Zhao Mingyuan, Lin Haiyan, Zhou Jianguo, Chen Lei, Fang Zhiwen, Su Xiaowen, Ma Jun — two acoustics researchers, two maintenance workers, a local historian, a journalist and a fisherman.
  3. Opening the page delivers The seven missing.
  4. On the forum, read “What actually happened to the seven people who disappeared in 2003?” and the memorial thread. LittleSisterSu is Su Xiaowen’s younger sister; she says “her daughter was nine that year, she is thirty now, and she is still looking.”
  5. About two seconds after the clue lands, the game advances to Chapter Two and the second email arrives.

The old guide said “three researchers, two maintenance workers, a local-history scholar and a journalist” — it missed the fisherman and added a researcher. The list on this page is the one to trust.

Chapter Two: Beneath the lighthouse

New sites: Lancheng City History Archive and the Maritime Culture Museum (unlocked by searching 灯塔区 / 陈舟).

Goal: the clues "The underground laboratory", "The keeper's testimony" and "The underground tunnel".

  1. Search 灯塔区 or 禁区, open the history archive and read “A brief history of the Lancheng lighthouse” → The underground laboratory.
  2. Search 陈舟, open “Biography of Chen Zhou, lighthouse keeper” → The keeper’s testimony. On 12 September 2003 Chen Zhou went down to look for the seven and would not say what he saw when he came back; after his last oral-history interview in 2005 he disappeared, and was declared dead in 2011.
  3. Back on the news site, search 台风 / 碧露, open “Typhoon Bilu exposes the secret beneath the lighthouse” → The underground tunnel.
  4. The museum’s “1998 renovation records” can be read now; they deliver another clue in Chapter Three.

This is where the “unlisted eighth person” appears: Chen Zhou is not on the seven-name list, but his fate is just as unresolved. The finale uses it.

Chapter Three: Project Tidal

New site: Lancheng Government Data Centre (unlocked by searching 1998年 / 声波实验).

Goal: "The Project Tidal file", "What the sound did" and "The truth of the 1998 renovation".

  1. Open the data centre, search TD-1998, open “TD-1998-0731: special-use approval for the Eagle Beak Point lighthouse area” → The Project Tidal file.
  2. Search 人事 or 方旭东, open “Personnel transfer records”. The list puts Zhao Mingyuan, Lin Haiyan, Zhou Jianguo, Chen Lei and Fang Zhiwen inside the project; Su Xiaowen and Ma Jun were never on staff.
  3. Open the museum’s “1998 renovation records” → The truth of the 1998 “renovation”.
  4. What the sound did is not automatic: click a redacted passage in a government or museum file until the revealed text contains “memory / experiment / sound”. The safest is the “experiment purpose” block in the TD-1998 file.

Chapter Three needs both the Project Tidal file and "What the sound did". Finding the file but never clicking a black block will leave you stuck here.

Chapter Four: Signal and echo

New site: Lancheng People’s Radio (unlocked by searching FM91.7 / 守灯人日志).

Goal: the FM 91.7 recording, the keeper's log and the mysterious IP; pick up the 222-year frequency cycle on the way.

  1. Open the radio “Frequency allocation table” and click the “Radio” button in the top bar to open the tuner. Move the dial from 103.9 to 91.7 (the check window is 91.5–91.9); hold for about two seconds to collect The FM 91.7 recording.
  2. Open the “Night broadcast archive” and read down to recording #N-20030909: Su Xiaowen’s last dispatch. She reads the seven names, does not switch the recorder off, and in the last ten seconds uses your childhood name, Wanwan. Opening the page delivers The keeper’s log and triggers the sixth email, “TD-03 is your mother’s voice”.
  3. Search 访问日志, open “System access log” → The mysterious IP. 10.0.127.1 is a loopback address: the sender is not outside Lancheng, he has been inside the lighthouse intranet all along.
  4. Search 频率 (once you have come across FM 91.7), open “The 222-year frequency cycle” → The 222-year frequency cycle. This page is one of the two things ending D asks for.

The tuner accepts 91.5, 91.6, 91.7, 91.8 and 91.9. 91.4 and 92.0 are just outside the window and do not count.

Final Chapter: The names

Once the ten main-line clues — everything except the 222-year frequency cycle — are on the board, the complete truth appears and the game moves to the final choice.

The complete truth is:

Five choices exist; D and E are hidden by default:

EndingNameGate
AThe tide does not stopAlways available
BThe silent lighthouseAlways available
CEchoAlways available
DThe night watchDecode TIDE on FM 91.7 and collect the 222-year frequency cycle
EThe roll callCollect all ten tapes

All clues quick-reference table

#ClueWhere it is delivered
1The seven missingNews: “Seven in the fog”
2The underground laboratoryHistory archive: “A brief history of the Lancheng lighthouse”
3The keeper’s testimonyHistory archive: “Biography of Chen Zhou”
4The underground tunnelNews: “Typhoon Bilu exposes the secret beneath the lighthouse”
5The Project Tidal fileGovernment: “TD-1998-0731”
6What the sound didClick a redacted passage containing “memory / experiment / sound”
7The truth of the 1998 “renovation”Museum: “1998 renovation records”
8The FM 91.7 recordingTune the radio to 91.7
9The keeper’s logRadio: “Night broadcast archive”
10The mysterious IPGovernment: “System access log”
11The 222-year frequency cycleHistory archive: “The 222-year frequency cycle”
12The complete truthAppears after the other ten (all but #11) are collected

All puzzles quick-reference table

#PuzzleTypeChapterSolution
1Search the disappearanceSearchChapter OneSearch “失踪”
2Find the underground facilitySearchChapter TwoSearch “地下设施”
3Open the classified fileCodeChapter ThreeEnter the file reference “TD-1998”
4Decode the redacted textClick-to-revealChapter ThreeClick the black blocks in the file
5Tune the broadcastRadio tuningChapter FourTune to FM 91.7 (tolerance < 0.3)
6Find the mysterious IPSearchChapter FourSearch “访问日志”
7Assemble the complete truthEvidence boardFinaleCollect the ten main-line clues

All emails

#SubjectTrigger
1About the seven disappearances in Lighthouse DistrictStart
2The sixth lineCollect the seven-name list
3Not a drainage systemCollect the tunnel evidence
4It is waiting for an answerCollect what the sound did
5I am not one of the sevenCollect the mysterious IP
6TD-03 is your mother’s voiceCollect the keeper’s log

Keyword search index

The most useful terms, in chapter order:

Hidden features and tips

The ten tapes

The Tape Cabinet names the next term for you; it never makes you guess. The ten are spread across the chapters:

TapeDateKeywordContent
TD-011983-03-14陈舟Chen Zhou’s first recording of the hum
TD-021998-07-22TD-1998The renovation crew opening TD-1998
TD-032003-09-09七人Su Xiaowen’s last tape; she says “Wanwan” in the last ten seconds
TD-042003-09-12赵明远Zhao Mingyuan’s recorder
TD-052004-01-18次声波Experiment log
TD-062005-11-0315秒The tide station’s pulse against 18.7 Hz
TD-072011-09-30TD-F01The note under the door
TD-082019-04-02守灯人A listener’s call on FM 91.7
TD-092021-12-2118.7Zhou Qiming’s monologue
TD-102024-09-10TD-10Play the ten by year; the seventh is Su Xiaowen

Endings D and E

Three things people miss

  1. What the sound did requires clicking a redacted passage; it is not handed out automatically.
  2. The 222-year cycle is a hidden page; you need FM91.7 before searching “频率”.
  3. The sixth email triggers when you open the “Night broadcast archive”, not when you finish the tapes.

Sites and pages at a glance

SitePagesRole
Lancheng News11The disappearance, the typhoon, the 2003 list
Lancheng Forum12Family threads, sightings, memorial, the keeper’s post
City History Archive9Lighthouse history, Chen Zhou, the 222-year cycle
Government Data Centre8TD-1998, budget, personnel, access logs
Maritime Culture Museum81998 renovation, keeper exhibition, audio guide
People’s Radio7FM 91.7, night recordings, listener letters

Fifty-five pages in all, counted site by site in the table above. The final chapter adds no new site.

Mobile notes

Changelog