The most difficult puzzle in Tormented Souls’ opening is the metal T handle. This is a device that you realize that you need early on, but there’s no way to get it until you’ve made some significant progress. This guide covers how you get this item and open up the door to the main hall.
Step 1: Find the plastic heart
As you explore the game’s opening, you’ll come across two halves of a plastic heart. The first is encountered very early on in the first save room. This one is on the couch in the room inside of an organ donor box. Open up the box and pick it up.
The second half of the plastic heart isn’t available until you get to the dentist room. To enter this room, you first have to turn on the generator. Once you’ve done this, the electronic locks on the two doors in this opening section will unlock. When you’ve got this second half, it’s time to tackle the maternity ward.
Step 2: The maternity ward
Inside the maternity ward is a body on a bed that’s hooked up to some wires. This is the body that’s holding the metal T handle, but rigor mortise has set in, and it’s impossible to wrench it free of the corpse’s grip. Don’t try to do that just yet. Instead, explore the room. In a nearby book, you’ll find out that one of the lights in this room isn’t working correctly, the bulb is flashing. Find this light and interact with it.
This light opens up a hole in the ground, the last place you’ll want to go. However, this is a horror game, so it’s time to descend into darkness. The little room is at the bottom of the ladder, which only has a spooky mirror in it. Walk up to the mirror and interact with it. You need to use your lighter to light the two candles and trigger a spooky cutscene that you could probably do without. You’ll notice that the reflection in the mirror is of a different room to the one you’re in. Interact with the mirror to step through.
You’ll emerge in a twisted mirror version of the mansion. You need to climb the ladder back out into the maternity ward and kill an enemy. There’s a healing item and some nails in the room for you as well. Head back to where the body was in the real world, and you’ll find a doll. You need to put the plastic heart into the doll’s chest to trigger its eyes to open.
Once you’ve done this, head back down the ladder and through the mirror. There’s nothing more to do in this mirror world for now. In the real world, go back to the body and interact with it. You’ll notice that the chest has been sewn up. Now you can turn on the switch on the equipment attached to the body and pull the lever. This causes the body to convulse and relinquish the precious metal T handle.
Step 3: The bolt
Before you can use the metal T handle, you need a bolt to go on the end. This is located in a locker at the bottom of the stairs on your way to the x-ray room, where the priest is located. Turn around at the bottom of the stairs before you go through the door, and you’ll find a locker. The bolt is in the locker, and there’s a book on the side that discusses the body you’ve just been electrifying.
Step 4: Combine and use
With the bolt in hand, you can now combine it with the metal T handle and create a functioning metal T handle with hex socket. Now all you need to do is make your way over to the large gated door in the corridor outside of the first save room. It’s got a small box next to it that looks like it would fit the hex socket. Use the item on the device, and you’ll open the gate. Beyond the doors is the main hall and a lot more horror for you to encounter.
