Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3’s lore is shrouded in mystery, which can be uncovered by the secret tapes. Explore the new funfair and locate the tapes to learn more about the smiley monsters: CatNap and Nightly Critters. Here’s where to find every tape in Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3.
Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 tape locations
Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 is filled with intrigue with its newest and friendliest arrivals. While you can learn more about them by listening to their cardboard cut-out audio files along the way, there is a lot to uncover by listening to the tapes scattered across the fun fair. The television and VHS player are spread throughout the chapter, with the corresponding tape always within close proximity of you.
Now let’s dive into where exactly you can find all twelve tapes in Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3.
First tape location
The first tape is found immediately after completing all of the platforming at the beginning of Chapter 3. You’ll find the first TV set and VHS player once you are inside the room where you saw CatNap drop you into the garbage disposal in the opening cutscene. Head over to the blood stain inside this room where the blue tape is located. While it isn’t on our screenshot, the tape is directly in front of the first TV.
Use left-click to pick the tape up, clicking again to pull it into your inventory. Then go up to the VHS player and press E on the tape recorder to insert the tape. You don’t need to enter your inventory (TAB) to select the tape.
GrabPack 2.0 tape location
This tape is inside the room to the right of the Gas Production Zone room that you’ll need a power pack to open. This is where you also pick up the jump GrabPack upgrade. This green tape is on the floor, beside the overturned shelving unit. The tape recorder is close to the door you walked through.
Second tape location
The next tape is inside the P.T section of Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3. After ingesting some of CatNap’s red smoke, you fall into a vivid nightmare that shows your guilt relating to a child’s death. Complete this nightmare section by following the linear path. CatNap will show itself multiple times here, but there’s nothing to worry about—this is a nightmare, after all.
Finish this nightmare section and enter a hospital room, separate from the endless hotel corridors. The second TV and VHS set is here, with the red tape to the right-hand side, on top of a hospital bed. The curtains will draw once you insert the tape and you’ll be temporarily trapped by the hypnotizing video.
Third tape location
You must enter the corridor on your right-hand side now you’re inside the Home Sweet Home Orphanage. Go to the lower floor via the hole in the ground. Complete this section, grabbing the gas mask along the way. Head over to the room with a flipped table on the ground floor. You need to move a cabinet to clear the blockage so that you can jump through the hole in the wall. Now, crouch past the flipped table. Upon the door using the left hand and turn right, opening the final door to enter the room with the TV.
Turn around from the TV as if you were leaving the room. You’ll notice a metal door on your left that is slightly open near the TV set. Crouch up against it and peer through for the next tape. Pick this up with your GrabPack and insert the tape directly into the TV set.
Fourth tape location
Continue playing through Chapter 3 like usual, completing the puzzles to ascend to the first floor. You need to remain on this side of the Orphanage as the task at hand is to find two power packs to power this sector. Head up to the top floor via the now-opened staircase after finding and inserting the power pack from the destroyed Smiling Critter statue.
The staircase takes you to the next floor, where there’s a race car you need to start up to reach the upper floor’s banister. Turn right once you face the banister overlooking the main entrance of the Orphanage. Enter this open room for the two green power sources. The fourth TV set is in the back-left corner of the room. The tape, as always, is close by, to the right of the green panel in the wall and inside the closed cabinet. Open it using your GrabPack and pick the tape up to insert it into the VHS player once more.
Fifth tape location
The fifth tape is within the School. You’ll naturally enter this after completing the Orphanage. Unlock the first metal shutters using the green power panels. Turn left and enter the room with the birthday banner on the outside after passing through the first metal shutters. The power pack is in the back right corner of the screen.
Grab the power pack and place it in the generator room. Continue down the corridor, past the blockage by crouching underneath it. The monster will pass you. Enter the room on the right and go to the opposite side as the woman continues to speak to you on the sound system. Look up for a vent. Ascend into the vent in the room the teacher came out of using the GrabPack. This will take you into the cage to pick up the second power pack. Return to the generator room, unlock the next shutters with the power packs, and you’ll find the next TV in this newly unlocked area.
The tape you need is in the room you were just in, on the previously locked side of the shutters. Face the googly-eyed lockers against the wall and pick up the yellow tape in the blue locker.
Sixth tape location
You’ll find this tape immediately after completing the School section. Enter the underground cave system titled Restricted Access, linking back to the School. The TV set is in the open cave chamber across the bridge after picking up the third and final GrabPack upgrade.
The tape is an easy one to find this time around. Look opposite the TV for the tape sitting atop three wooden planks, directly before the metal platform you need to cross to progress.
Seventh tape location
Complete the platforming and puzzles at the Restricted Access area. Load into the next area titled the Play House. Things will start intense, with multiple chase sequences initiating one after another. In the first room (where a cardboard cut-out is visible), run past the enemy and into the corridor. Head into the next room, where the enemy makes a loud sound when you enter. Turn around and return to the original room the enemy spawned in. The TV is to the right of the door you first entered through.
The tape is in the room you ran into to avoid the enemy. Look at the tent in this room for the pink tape.
Eighth tape location
As soon as you enter the Counselor’s Office, use the first battery pack (in the vents) to unlock the door. Head to the desk in this room and enter the cubicle. Look to the right of the computer to find the white tape. Insert the tape into the player behind you.
Ninth tape location
Complete the first section of the Counselor’s Office. This will send you back into the Restricted Access area, where another small light puzzle area must be completed to re-enter the Office. The tape is inside the Playcare Office of Stella Greyber. You need to enter this room anyway to get the key from the vent in the ceiling to progress through the game.
The TV is inside the Playcare Office, and the tape is on the main desk in the same room.
Tenth tape location
When you return to the Gas Production Zone to restore power to 100 percent, you need to escape from CatNap by using the elevator. This entire area is filled with CatNap’s red smoke. Head to the right after exiting the lift to find the TV set with the tape on the ground.
The Hour of Joy tape location
The final tape in Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 is unlocked by defeating CatNap. You can see this TV set towards the beginning of the chapter, in the room to the left of the Gas Production Zone (where the red smoke resides). It is in the same room with a giant elevator door on the floor and the CatNap cardboard cut-out. But how do you get to the tape to this TV?
You may have spotted this like I did and searched the area, adamant the tape would be close by. But unlike the other tapes in Chapter 3 that are always near the TV set, this one would stay with Poppy for the entire chapter. You get this tape after completing all objectives. Poppy will then hand over the Hour of Joy VHS tape to show you the truth about what happened to the Playtime Factory and Playcare.
