1. Back in a Flash

Note: This walkthrough is written for the HARD Difficulty. You'll find more items if you play on Easy or Normal, and less items if you play on the Survivor difficulty.

ITEM CHECKLIST:

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Combination Note (ALL) (1/4) Blades (E/N/H/S) (1/4) Rag (E/N/H/S) Pharmacy Key (ALL) Pharmacist's Note (ALL) (1/2) Sugar (E/N/H/S) (1/4) Rag (E/N/H/S) (1/4) Blades (E/N/H/S) (1/2) Explosive (E/N/H/S) Salon Note (ALL) Health Kit (E/N/H/S)

After the opening cutscenes you'll be in an abandoned shopping mall. Head upstairs via either the escalators, stairs, or by climbing some boxes on the right side of the area, then proceed onwards and head down a long hall. You'll come across a closed shutter of a store named 'American Princess'. Be sure to grab a brick as you turn right and continue. Move underneath the shutter at the end of this hall to enter the pharmaceutical store.

The shelves on the left seemingly contain some pills, but it turns out to be an empty bottle. In fact, the whole left part of the store contains a further three misleading non-items. Visit the right part of the store instead and look behind the counter to find a the [COMBINATION NOTE] for the American Princess store. Head back to this store and head inside. You can find a [(1/4) BLADES] and [(1/4) RAG] behind the counter, but more importantly you'll find the pharmacists body in the far corner. He's got the [PHARMACY KEY] on him, as well as a mildly touching [PHARMACIST'S NOTE].

As you head back to the pharmacy, a clicker appears in the main hall. It's very easy to sneak past him, but don't do any crazy running. In the pharmacy, use the newly acquired key to open the door behind the counter and finally get access to some medicine! Or maybe not. In any case, be sure to check the room to the right of the window before hopping through, to find [(1/2) SUGAR]. Yummy, decades-old candy.

Hop over the window and head right; there's no other way to go anyway. As you continue through this collapsed store, you may try the left tunnel but it'll collapse, leading to Ellie's immediate death... No, it actually just collapses, but it still blocks you from going further. Instead just use the other tunnel, more to the right side of the shop.

Move to the shutter on your left side and search the nearby shelves to find [(1/4) RAG], [(1/4) BLADES] and [(1/2) EXPLOSIVE]. Since this is a dead end, take one of the other paths to proceed and enter the Nail Polish Salon. You'll find a corpse with the [SALON NOTE] on it, along with a [HEALTH KIT]. Head out to the main hall and go down the stairs, then hop over the railing.