As longtime fans of the Vampire: The Masquerade board game are aware, the Tremere are horrible. This carries over to Vampirethe latest adaptation of a video game, swan song, where his attempts to negotiate with one of Boston’s Tremere groups lead him to get caught in a surreal “memory trap”.
It’s not that hard to just escape the trap, but unless you explore the area thoroughly, you’ll end up leaving some memories behind. This can drastically complicate Emem’s life in the future, especially if your goal is to resolve some of her personal subplots.
Here’s how to find Emem’s Scattered Memories in Vampire: The Masquerade – Swan Song. This will inevitably involve significant spoilers for scene 4.
Find all of Emem’s lost memories in VtM: The swan song
Every time you successfully find one of Emem’s memories, you are transported to a circular corridor. Find the door with light coming from below to continue. Usually you don’t have to do anything other than just witness what happens.
These memories are numbered in the approximate order in which they can be found and are simply named for ease of reference. Neither the number nor the name are in any way official.
#1: Arrive at the Chapel
You can’t miss this one. Automatically activates when crossing the bridge near your starting point. This requires a bit of exploration to complete, but it’s simply a matter of using Blink to get from point A to point B, and there’s nothing else to see or do in between.
After solving this sequence, Emem reappears in the prison with a new trait: Amnesia. This effectively zeros out his Education and Deduction skills. Fortunately, you don’t need to finish the cutscene either, but it does hide a potentially important asset.
#2: Hug
When you reach the Tremere reading room, turn around (with your back to the entrance) and face the central tower. There is a hidden jump point for Blink on your left. You can use it to drop down and reach a small ledge with a lit candle at the end. Interact with it to return to the hallway.
In this flashback, just go to the end of the path and then turn around. You will recover Emem’s (moderately NSFW) memory of the night he became a vampire. Sit through the ensuing sequence and enter the glowing portal when he appears.
#3: Leaving France
It’s very easy to miss this memory, as the game doesn’t provide many clues about it. If you have at least 2 points in the Education talent, you can analyze Emem’s cell door right at the start of the scene, before the Amnesia trait activates, to discover that more than just a lock is keeping the doors shut. With Heightened Senses, you can even see the magical seal on the other side of the cell bars.
Still, this requires some innovative thinking. When you reach the reading room, you’ll find two levers on the wall that control two portcullises on either side of the entrance, granting you access to the cell blocks. You’ll also get a tutorial at a weird time about using Emem’s Fleetness ability, which is part of his Celerity Discipline.
If you activate Fleetness before throwing one of the levers, Emem can move fast enough to go under the corresponding portcullis before it comes down. While the portcullis are down, the Tremere wards on each cell door are gone, allowing you to enter and search the remaining untouched cells.
First, pull the right stick up, then activate Fleetness and pull it down again. You can now run out of the reading room and turn left to access the left part of the cell block.
The second cell from the entrance contains a table with an old radio. Interact with him and Emem will revive a memory from World War II. Just wait and enter the portal.
#4: The breakup
From the previous memory, exit the cell and head towards the end of the hallway. The final cell has some rats, a dead guy holding a useful piece of equipment, and a point from which you can blink to another well-hidden part of the prison. Follow the path to the end and inspect the impact crater in the wall.
Retrieving four of Emem’s memories, in any order, is enough to remove the amnesia trait. This doesn’t give her any immediate benefits in this scene, but if she has at least 1 point in Education, she can now go back to the start of the level and blink into the partially collapsed cell.
There is a table inside with a lock picking tool and a mystery coin, the latter of which you can choose to take if you analyze it first. This can be useful later in the game.
#5: Nightclub
Go back to the reading room and open the portcullis to the other cell block, to the right. Reactivate Fleetness, pull the lever and get through before the rake finishes falling.
The fourth untouched cell to your left contains another prisoner (hey, more free blood) and several empty bottles on the floor at the base of the far wall. Interact with them to retrieve a memento of Emem’s friendship with Journey.
#6: Capture
Leave the cell from the previous memory and go to the end of the cell block hallway. From here you can blink to another distant ledge, then drop down and blink across the space to an interrogation room. Blink once more, moving back to top up your hunger meter if necessary, towards the bloodstained cell.
Inspect the cell bed to retrieve an unpleasant memory from Emem’s earlier encounter with the Tremere.
#7: Test
when you get to 4the tower floor, after solving the three elevator puzzles, take a moment before you leave to inspect the poker sticking out of the lit brazier.
This will transport you to another crucial memory of Emem, which explains another major point of contention between her and her father. If you’re really getting into the story, it’ll also go a long way toward explaining why no one seems to really like the former prince of Boston.
Completing all seven memory sequences unlocks the How could I forget? trophy/achievement Emem having a complete memory of the events of his life will also play an important role in the rest of the game.
Conversely, if you don’t retrieve memories #4 or #6, Emem will forget two crucial pieces of personal information. She skips number 4 and she won’t remember that she and Hilda broke up 30 years ago; she skips #6 and will no longer remember who Journey is.
If you subsequently talk to any of them (assuming you didn’t encourage Journey to run away in scene 1), you’ll get the scarce allies trait, which grants a 10 point discount on the cost of experience the next time you upgrade your social attribute.
And this is how to find all the memories of Emem in VtM: The swan song. For more guides on the puzzles of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swan Song and more, keep an eye on our official tips hub for the game.
